Cooper Landing

A two-mile loop around the Devil’s Creek Trailhead is packed down for the first time for nordic skiing.

Volunteers in Cooper Landing have been grooming the Russian River Campground and Quartz Creek area for over a decade, through a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. 

Anticipating ongoing improvements to the Russian River Campground entrance and a beetle kill mitigation project, the service suggested opening an alternative trail, said David Story, who chairs the town’s Trails Committee.

Cooper Landing and Moose Pass have been without internet and telephone service since Friday due to damaged lines near Moose Pass.

Trees fell on Chugach Electric power lines early Friday morning, triggering power outages.

Those lines were later fixed, but there are still damages to adjacent TelAlaska lines, which provide local phone service and internet to both communities. TelAlaska had to wait for Chugach Electric to fix its lines before starting on its own repairs, said TelAlaska Marketing Manager Celine Kaplan.

Alaska grocery store chain Three Bears Alaska has purchased 13 acres in Cooper Landing to build a store there.

Company president Dave Weisz said Three Bears brought the piece of land, on the Sterling Highway, across Quartz Creek from the borough’s transfer facility, from a private property owner last winter. Now, it’s coordinating with the Kenai Peninsula Borough about building requirements.